Vars struck her, hard, with the flat of his hand, sending her tumbling to her knees. You do not speak to me without being told.

She looked up at him, the fear obvious in her eyes now.

Thats a better start, he said. He lifted his hand again. As for being gentle, thats not what youre being paid for, whore. Lets see if you can scream as beautifully as you kneel.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Devin wandered the streets of Royalsport, still in a daze, crossing the bridges, reflecting on all that had happened to him. Right then he should have been at work; he never wandered the streets this time of day, and it didnt feel right. He no longer had any work to go to. He felt purposeless.

Yet at the same time, he felt a tremendous purpose hovering just outside the realms of his fingertips, one he knew was circling him yet one he could not understand.

Magic. Was that what had happened back there? Had he really made the princes hand move? Or had he imagined it? Did the prince just have a cramp, perhaps?

The memory brought back other, less comfortable memories, from when Devin was a boy. Memories hovering in the outskirts of his brain, foggy; he was not even sure if they were real memories or just fantasies, dreams. But they were there, still. Moments, flashes of a power Devin had wielded. Of others looking at him as if he were different.

Was he?

His father would be so angry, not just at the thought that hed lost his job, but at the way he had done it. Devin knew he would shout and rage, demand to know what hed been thinking. The idea that he had been protecting Nem wouldnt be justification enough, because his father would only think about the things that might follow for all of them.

He couldnt go home until hed worked out what to do next, that much was clear.

Yet what could he do next?

Devin didnt know, so he kept walking. He made his way into the marketplace that sat before the House of Merchants, the large, open space essentially just an extension of the commerce that went on within. Inside, merchants would get loans to finance their expeditions or their businesses; outside, they would sell the fruits of those efforts, trying to recoup enough to start the whole thing over again.

There was a festival attitude there today, with jugglers and musicians in the spaces among the stalls, while criers called out in celebration of Princess Lenores upcoming wedding.

The king has declared feasting at the castle, the outer yards open to all! a man called out as Devin passed.